Looking out for #1

The linchpin in NYC’s electroclash scene, the art-collective-turned-Kraftwerkian-pop-group FischerSpooner, who staged their first performance at a Manhattan Starbucks and had gallery representation before they struck a record deal, are finally venturing beyond the Big Apple. They’re already a hit in Europe, where their single "Emerge" has hep clubgoers breaking out dance moves that’ve been in mothballs since "Planet Rock." Now their debut, #1, is getting a proper release by Capitol. But for the full performance-art experience — somewhere in among a Warhol happening, a Parliament/Funkadelic gig, and a Hedwig and the Angry Inch wrap party, with a lead singer whose unapolagetic lip-synching has become semi-legendary — you’ll have to catch the group, who’ve been known to expand to as many as 25 members, at Avalon, 15 Lansdowne Street, on April 10. Tickets, at $20.25, go on sale this Friday at 10 a.m.; call (617) 423-NEXT.

Pushing things forward

A white Birmingham lad who makes no attempt to disguise his accent, or bend his intonation, or excise his native slang, 23-year-old Mike Skinner — who records as the Streets — is the unlikeliest hip-hop hero of the new century. Boosted by "Let’s Push Things Forward," on which he reimagines the MC as just some witty, streetwise Trainspotting reject talking in a cadence that happens to rhyme over a slice of 2-step-inflected bubblegum raga, Streets’ Original Pirate Material (released in the US late last year on the Atlantic-distributed label Vice) was up for the Mercury Prize at home and dominated year-end lists here. He’s flying in for just a half-dozen US shows, including one on March 20 at the Paradise, 969 Commonwealth Avenue. Tickets are $15, and it’s 18-plus; call (617) 423-NEXT.

Summer concert report

When tickets went on sale last weekend for Metallica’s stadium-sized "Summer Sanitarium" gigs, the summer concert season officially opened for business. (The area’s other two major summer venues also put their first shows on sale last week: Grammy darling Norah Jones, with alterna-country gal Gillian Welch, at FleetBoston Pavilion on June 28; and James Taylor’s annual gigs at the Tweeter Center in Mansfield on June 28 and 29.) Metallica — who have been hinting that St. Anger (Elektra), due in June, will be a return to the pre-black-album thrash daze — are bringing a full load to Gillette Stadium in Foxboro on July 6, with support from Limp Bizkit, Linkin Park, Deftones, and Mudvayne. Meanwhile, this year’s OzzFest — which is not the first OzzFest to advertise itself as the final edition — is booked into the Tweeter Center for August 14. Sharing the bill with Ozzy are Korn, Marilyn Manson, Disturbed, Mass metal overlords Shadows Fall, and Cradle of Filth (whose addition to the bill caused them to cancel their previously announced appearance at May’s New England Metal and Hardcore Festival). No OzzFest on-sale date has been announced yet. But look for tickets to go on sale next Friday, March 7, for Pearl Jam’s gig at the Tweeter on July 2 with support from the Buzzcocks. Also expected to go on sale in the next few weeks: the Dixie Chicks at the FleetCenter on June 19 and the Justin Timberlake/Christina Aguilera extravaganza at the FleetCenter on August 5. Call (617) 931-2000 for all of the above.

All-American girl

Comedienne Margaret Cho has broken the glass ceiling of stand-up comedy to achieve critical and commercial success on stage, in print, and on film. Following the failure of her mid-’90s sit-com All-American Girl, her 1999 one-woman show I’m the One That I Want became an Off Broadway smash and subsequently spawned a national tour, a book, and a top-selling DVD. She hasn’t looked back since, and in the wake of last year’s Notorious C.H.O. tour and film, she’s back fomenting Revolution, a new show in which she "tackles the axis of evil, her travels through Thailand’s red-light district, the explosion of childbirth, bartering sex for household chores, revolutionizing your self-esteem, the joy of bodily functions, her loser ex-boyfriend, and . . . more that cannot be printed." Cho stops in at Symphony Hall, 301 Mass Ave in Boston, on April 25 for shows at 7:30 and 10:30 p.m. Tickets are $29.50 and $45; call (617) 931-2000.